The bandoridroni (/bænˈdɔːrɪdrəʊni/) is a pale green and yellow stranger characterized by its long and sludgy body, as well as its constant forward growth. Its greasy, mud-like flesh undulates inward in slow, small pulses, allowing it to maintain its form despite its softness. It is a weak-bodied stranger, and due to its mushy consistency, can be pulled apart with little effort. It constantly secretes a thin, greenish (but predominantly clear) liquid from its skin, with a great amount oozing out from between the eyelid flaps that cover its bloodshot eye markings. As a whole, the bandoridroni's odor is harsh and unpleasant, and it reeks so strongly of fetid matter that prolonged contact is difficult to tolerate without appropriate protective measures.

The bandoridroni possesses quick regenerative responses, and can recover from many small and medium-sized wounds within seconds. Even large holes and injuries do not pose a significant threat to most bandoridroni, for it can be killed only when its cranial segment is destroyed. If divided in half, the head end will continue to grow forward, unperturbed, while the hind end dies off and dissolves. Despite its reformative properties, the bandoridroni melts when exposed to temperatures above 130°F, and turns black and dry when frozen, breaking apart into a crumbling powder. As such, it seeks temperature-stable territories, partially explaining its prevalence in underground environments.

The bandoridroni speaks through a happy, tootling sigh. Its voice is soft and high in pitch (but not childlike), and is difficult to place as either masculine or feminine.

environment and generation

The bandoridroni appears in brick or stone-walled subterranean tunnels. It is prevalent around rusty pipes, narrow passageways, and mold. As such, old sewers and catacombs are a common home to a bandoridroni, with high levels of moisture also appearing to be a critical factor in its generation. The bandoridroni generates from a flat surface. Its point of origin resembles, at first, a patch of green or brownish mold or slime, from which the bandoridroni's head emerges forward bit by bit.

The bandoridroni does not move, but instead grows forward throughout its life, its head leaving its body as a trail behind it, with new arms generating every two to four feet. The bandoridroni is not impeded by obstacles in its way, and tends to grow around them, looping backwards once it hits a dead end. As it advances forward, new arms sprout, lengthen, and either affix to the ground or coil around nearby objects like roots, anchoring the bandoridroni to its surroundings. Although the bandoridroni's oily flesh repels some surface exposure to water, its body does tend to break apart when submerged in all but the stillest of pools, requiring it to stay on dry paths and walkways. It is not capable of growing on walls or ceilings.

Mature bandoridroni grow forward at a constant rate of 0.2-18 inches per hour, with younger individuals advancing at a faster rate. Due to this continuous growth, a single individual can grow hundreds, if not thousands of feet long, although longer individuals do tend to degrade and fall apart at the tail end, preventing unlimited length. The bandoridroni weighs 178 pounds per every five feet of length.

The bandoridroni forms in groups the majority of the time. These groups grow and move forward together to form grotesque, winding spectacles through their environment, half-intestinal, half-organic sewer in shape and structure. The bandoridroni's putty-like body tends to partially merge with the bodies of others in its group, and as such, it can be difficult to tell where one individual ends and the next begins.

Larger groups split up when they hit an obstacle, or when their path makes it impossible for the entirety of the group to grow forward as a whole. Similarly, smaller groups often join together when meeting one another, and new individuals emerge from the sides of particularly stable groups to either add to this slow procession, or form new paths entirely.

behaviour

The bandoridroni expresses a sedate disposition, and, due to the energy expended by its constant forward expansion, it spends its entire life sleeping. Its few infrequent movements are limited to yawns, twitches of its eyelids, and slight smacking motions of the lips, which it achieves with a sloppy wetness. It cannot be thought of as comatose, however, for when one of the bandoridroni's arms grows to clutch around certain objects, its lips curl upwards in a faint smile, and it pulls this object closer to its side, as a sleeping child would a beloved stuffed animal. While it is not known what objects give the bandoridroni reason to smile with such contentment, it does seem to prefer soft objects, such as discarded clothes or pillows, over hard objects such as bricks or metal boxes.

interaction with sensitives

The bandoridroni's reaction to sensitives is negligible, but specific. It exhales a happy sigh when touched, and grows towards sensitives whenever possible, its arms curling around the sensitive's legs like vines towards sunlight and its body circling around to form a muddy enclosure. The bandoridroni lets out a distressed whimper when burnt or attacked, but otherwise, remains unable to move away beyond its slow growth forward.

Physical contact with the bandoridroni is highly irritating, and causes rashes and flaking of the skin, along with a swelling numbness within the muscle itself. In addition, residue from the bandoridroni's greasy flesh is almost impossible to completely wash from clothing, meaning that any absorbent substance must be destroyed after contact, lest it continue to irritate the skin.

The bandoridroni can also be considered dangerous due to the highly noxious, toxic gas that it generates as a by-product of its growth. This gas, when not outwardly dissipated from the skin in minor expulsions, becomes enclosed in small cavities inside the bandoridroni's flesh, with impacts causing these pockets to burst open.

This gas is pale green in color, and possesses a faint, almond-like odor. Small amounts, such as the quantities exuded from the bandoridroni's surface, cause only vague drowsiness, a watering of the eyes, and an aggravation of the nasal passages. Burst pockets, however, contain quantities large enough to cause internal bleeding and organ rupture, made more dangerous by the gas's sedative properties, with many victims drifting off to sleep just before the more violent side effects occur.

The bandoridroni continues to grow towards any individuals who pass out or die in its presence, often looping back several times until the entirety of the body is covered. After the sensitive's body is fully enclosed beneath its flesh, the bandoridroni sighs in happy, melodic tunes, which nearby bandoridroni repeat and sing along with, as well. This singing ceases only when the corpse's brain reaches a state of advanced decomposition, sending the bandoridroni back into its normal, somnolent state. Otherwise, the bandoridroni is indifferent to both sensitive and non-sensitive corpses.

symphonic inundation

Populations of bandoridroni are very rarely afflicted with a disease called "symphonic inundation," which occurs only to groups of individuals. Once diseased, groups initially grow forward at a faster speed, with the rate of arm generation also increasing. After one to three thousand feet of this growth, individual bandoridroni's heads begin to bisect, creating two individuals, with further bisections occurring every 140-320 feet. The symphonically inundated bandoridroni continue to grow faster and more chaotically, and while the group stays together, stray individuals deviate regularly, attempting to grow up walls, underwater, or into the sides of their companions. Many more of these numerous individuals dissolving into slop, unable to maintain their form. As they grow in this unrestrained manner, their normally peaceful tootles turn to staccato bursts, a melody heard only in these afflicted populations. The symphonically inundated group always collapses into nothing after five to six thousand feet of growth. The cause of this disease (which is invariably lethal) remains unknown.

aging and death

As it ages, the bandoridroni's flesh has a tendency to soften, and its rate of growth slows. At this point, deformities also begin to appear in any newly grown lengths, such as fused arms, inconsistent bodily widths, and tumor-like protuberances. Pre-existing body sections display a similar degradation in integrity, with sagging towards the middle and outright melting at the end.

As the bandoridroni nears the end of its natural lifespan, its body loses strength and structure at a rapid rate. Its flesh collapses and bubbles, and its arms either melt at the tips and work inward, like candle wicks, or break off and dissolve entirely. While most bandoridroni remain unresponsive to this degradation, a small number emit a quiet but distressed tone as their body falls apart, perhaps somewhat aware of their imminent denouement.

When the bandoridroni dies, its body caves in on itself and dissolves into a thick line of gurgling sludge, which softens and recedes into nearby stonework over a period of several days, leaving behind only small and irreducible puddles of matter. Other bandoridroni hum a series of somber notes when one of their companions dies, and their nearby arms grow to reach into these sludgy remains, as though drawn to some invisible memento left behind by a long-lost friend.